Sunday, January 25, 2015

things worth sharing: 1/25/15

Funny, wise, poetic and completely honest.
Here is one of my favorite parts:

“I’ve endured a few knocks but missed worse. I know how
lucky I am, and secretly tap wood, greet the day, and grab a sneaky pleasure
from my survival at long odds. The pains and insults are bearable. My
conversation may be full of holes and pauses, but I’ve learned to dispatch a
private Apache scout ahead into the next sentence, the one coming up, to see if
there are any vacant names or verbs in the landscape up there. If he sends back
a warning, I’ll pause meaningfully, duh, until something else comes to mind……On
the other hand, I’ve not yet forgotten Keats or Dick Cheney or what’s waiting
for me at the dry cleaner’s today. As of right now, I’m not Christopher
Hitchens or Tony Judt or Nora Ephron; I’m not dead and not yet mindless in a
reliable upstate facility. Decline and disaster impend, but my thoughts don’t
linger there. It shouldn’t surprise me if at this time next week I’m surrounded
by family, gathered on short notice—they’re sad and shocked but also a little
pissed off to be here—to help decide, after what’s happened, what’s to be done
with me now. It must be this hovering knowledge, that two-ton safe swaying on a
frayed rope just over my head, that makes everyone so glad to see me again.
“How great you’re looking! Wow, tell me your secret!” they kindly cry when they
happen upon me crossing the street or exiting a dinghy or departing an X-ray
room, while the little balloon over their heads reads, “Holy shit—he’s still
vertical!”

2. Favorite quote I came upon recently:“Reading is socially accepted disassociation.
You flip a switch and you’re not there anymore. It’s better than heroin. More
effective and cheaper and legal”. ~ Mary Karr

4. Turn off your TV and watch this instead...Firefly:Think Robin Hood leaning space cowboys,
traveling the universe, under the radar of the corrupt Government Alliance. Set
500 years in the future, this series by Josh Whedon ran just one season on Fox,
who unfortunately ran the episodes out of order and with long lapses between
segments, so the TV viewing audience was thoroughly confused. Now, however,
Firefly has become a cult hit. Starring Nathan Fillion ( think Richard Castle,
from Castle or Joey Buchanan, from One Life to Live), and a cast of characters
you’ll really enjoy. Turn off your TV and watch this instead this week. I picked
it up at the library…you can’t beat free!

5. What the critics wrote
about the Beatles in 1964: “Visually they are a nightmare, tight, dandified
Edwardian-Beatnik suits and great pudding bowls of hair. Musically they are a
near disaster, guitars and drums slamming out a merciless beat that does away
with secondary rhythms, harmony and melody. Their lyrics (punctuated by nutty
shouts of "yeah, yeah, yeah") are a catastrophe, a preposterous
farrago of Valentine-card romantic sentiments…. “(Newsweek, Feb 24, 1964)You can read even more here for a really good laugh.

“Reading is socially accepted disassociation. You flip a switch and you’re not there anymore. It’s better than heroin. More effective and cheaper and legal”. ~ Mary Karr

I especially like this quote. When my son was younger, he was often overwhelmed by the chaos of school. Thank goodness, he would calm down by just a bit of reading. That was a whole lot better that other trouble he might have gotten in.